and Titus committed to them by vertue of their Episcopall Order What more sacred what more spirituall offices could they performe in the Church What could Gods children suck from their brests other then milke then sincere spirituall milke Saint Augustine agrees to this when hee says that Kings as Kings serve God so as none but Kings can doe and when he confesses that Christ came not to the detriment of sovereigntie And the Church in Tertullians words ascribing worship to their Heathen Emperours as being second immediatly to God and inferiour to none but God says as much as words can expresse In regard of internall sanctitie Peter may be more excellent then Caesar and so may Lazarus perhaps then Peter but in regard of that civill sanctitie which is visible to mans eye Caesar is to be worshipped more then Peter Caesar is to be looked upon as next in place here to God betwixt whom and God no other can have any superiour place Wisdome and goodnesse are blessed graces in the sight of GOD but these are more private and Power is an excellence more perfect and publike and visible to man then either if Ministers do sometimes in wisdome and goodnesse excell Princes yet in Power they doe not and therefore though wisdome and goodnesse may make them more amiable somtimes to God yet Power shall make Princes more Honourable amongst men There is in heaven no need of Power in the glorified creatures and yet the glorified creatures are there differenced by Power it is hard to say that one Angell or Saint differs from another in wisdome or in holinesse yet that they differ in power and glory we all know The twelve Patriarchs and the twelve Apostles sit in heaven upon higher Thrones then many Saints which perhaps here in this life might be endued with a greater portion of wisdome and holinesse then they were and by this it may seeme that there is a species of externall sanctitie of power dispensed according to the free power of God even in Heaven also and that that sanctity is superiour to the other more private sanctity of other graces and excellences And if power in heavenly creatures where it is of no necessity has such a supereminent glory appertaining to it with what veneration ought wee to entertain it on earth where our common felicitie and safetie does so much depend upon it Goodnesse here wee see is a narrow excellence without wisdome and power and wisdome in men that have neither power nor goodnesse scarce profits at all but power in infants in women in Ideots hands is of publike use in as much as the wisdome and goodnesse of other men are ready to be commanded by it and its more naturall that they should be obsequious and officious in serving power then that the transcendent incommunicable indivisible Royalty of power should condiscend to bee at their devotion And for this reason when Princes are said to be solo Deo minores and Deo secundi this is spoken in regard of power and this being spoken in regard of power we must conceive it spoken of the most perfect excellence and dignity and sanctitie that can be imagined amongst men on earth And for the same reason when Princes are said to serve God as Princes and so to serve him as none other can we must conceive this spoken also with respect to their power in as much as wisdome and goodnesse in other men cannot promote the glory of God and the common good of man so much as power may in them But Stapleton takes foure exceptions to those times whereby if it bee granted that the Jewish Kings had supreame Ecclesiasticall authority yet hee sayes it does not follow that our Kings now ought to have the same Hee sayes first That the Iewish Religion was of farre lesse dignitie and perfection then ours is ours being that truth of which theirs was but a shadowish prefigurative resemblance Our answere here is that the Religion of the Jews as to the essence of it was not different from ours either in dignitie or perfection The same God was then worshipped as a Creatour Redeemer Sanctifier and that worship did consist in the same kinde of love feare hope and beliefe and the same charitie and justice amongst men The Law of Ceremonies and externall Rites in the bodily worship of God did differ from our discipline that being more pompous and laborious but the two great Commandements which were the effects and contents of all heavenly spirituall indispensible worship and service whereby a love towards God above that of our selves and a love towards man equall with that of our selves was enjoyned these two great Commandements were then as forcible and honourable as they are now Sacrifice was but as the garment of Religion obedience was the life the perfection the dignity of Religion and the life perfection and dignitie of that obedience consisted then in those weighty matters of the Law Piety and mercie as it now does but if the Jewish Religion was lesse excellent and more clogged with shadows and ceremonies in its outward habit what argument is this for the Supremacie of Regall rather then Sacerdotall power The more abstruse and dark the forme of that worship was and the more rigorous sanctity God had stamped upon the places and instruments and formalities of his worship and the more frequent and intricate questions might arise thereabout me thinks the more use there was of Sacerdotall honour and prerogative and the lesse of Regall in matters of the Lord I see not why this should make Princes more spirituall then their Order would beare but Priests rather His second reason is That all parts of the Jewish Religion Laws Sacrifices Rites Ceremonies being fully set down in writing needing nothing but execution their Kings might well have highest authoritie to see that done Whereas with us there are numbers of mysteries even in beliefe which were not so generally for them as for us necessary to be with some expresse acknowledgment understood many things belonging to externall government and our service not being set down by particular ordinances or written for which cause the State of the Church doth now require that the spirituall authoritie of Ecclesiasticall persons be large absolute and independent This reason is every way faulty for as to matters of Discipline and externall worship our Church is lesse incumbred with multiplicity of Rites such as Saint Paul cals carnall and beggerly rudiments and in this respect there is the lesse use of Ecclesiasticall authoritie amongst us and if popish Bishops doe purposely increase Ceremonies that they may inlarge their own power they ought not to take advantage of their own fraud And as for matters of faith and doctrinall mysteries we say according to Gods ancient promise knowledg doth now abound by an extraordinary effusion of Gods Spirit upon these latter dayes wee are so farre from being more perplexed with shadows and mysticall formalities or with weighty disputes that we are and
was not the learning and knowledge of all Bishops at his command to be imployed as if it were his owne Bishops themselves might erre and dissent and in that point many of them did erre and hold against the truth and without his ayde this division was irreconcileable but by his influence and superintendence truth might obtaine a faire tryall and Bishops themselves might be convinced by Bishops This case in Divinity might be too intricate for his sole judgment and too pondrous for his actuall determination but what he could not doe single and personally Hee might well effect by the counsell and advice of his most moderate and disinteressed Clergie for in Divinity the Prince is as in juridicall or Martiall affaires As he is not alwayes the ablest Divine so neither is he the ablest Lawyer nor the ablest Souldier and yet by the advice of Divines Lawyers and Souldiers He may conclude that wisely which neither He without them nor they without him could ever have concluded Therefore against this remisse cold slacknesse and haesitancy of Valentinian we may oppose the politike and couragious resolution of Constantine Theodosius and diverse other pious Emperors who all did compose debates and end controversies and vindicate Truth and Religion from many errors and abuses wch otherwise had bin endlesse and remedilesse After the first 5. or 6. hundred yeares Episcopacy began to invade the rights of Royalty by the Sophistications and impostures of the See of Rome and till this last Age Princes almost every where did blindly and superstitiously too farre abandon their owne right but by the light of Nature the wisest Kings in all Countryes were ever the most refractory and most impatient of the Popes tyranny and in the most ignorant times some there were found that made resistance to the same Much bloud was shed upon this Theme in diverse other Countries and even in our own stories we find that though England was prone otherwise to be the Popes Asse yet in the quarrell of supremacy it was jealous and had almost perpetuall conflicts I will only cite one story Henry the second was a very puissant Prince and in all other things except only Ecclesiasticall He was fortunate and victorious but his misery was that He raigned in such an Age as the Pope was in his Zenith and had to doe with Becket of all the Popes dependents the most seditious Henry the first his Grandfather out of the greatnesse of his Spirit and wit had passed these Lawes That no Appeal should stand That no Bishops should go out of the Realme That no Tenant in Capite should bee excommunicated That no officiall of the Kings should be interdicted without the Kings leave and consent And that Clergimen should be subject to secular judgement and that Lay-men under the King should judge of Tythes and other causes Ecclesiasticall At these just and necessary Lawes the Clergie hitherto rested quiet if not contented but now a most rebellious Becket arises to spurne against them and in his mouth they are dangerous incroachments and breaches upon the Church Rather than hee will subscribe to these so long establisht Lawes He departs the Kingdome in contempt of the King and with all violence and bitternesse that may bee incenses the Pope the King of France and all the Italian and French Bishops against his naturall Lord The King at first gallantly relyes upon the edge of his temporall sword and whets it sharper in behalfe of his legall prerogative and for some yeares together stands out against the danger of the Popes confounding blow but at last when Becket the fierce Traytor was slaine through the execrations and anathemas of the Pope and by the threats and exclamations of the King of France and diverse other Bishops and Potentates He is beaten from his ground swearing fealty to the Pope and his successors and admitting of Appeales to Rome Long it was before hee would submit himselfe in this contestation betwixt a subject and himselfe to the Romish Tribunall or yeeld to any condemnation being untryed and unheard and it appeares by the Popes forbearance of his last thūderbolt that the Pope was diffident in his power and durst not sentence him if He had not yeelded before the sentence But I leave Popery come now to our reformed times The dead time of night being now over Luther began to crow in Germany and to give notice of light ready to dawn upon the Earth and no sooner did that light appeare but that diverse Princes began to awake and to shake off that blind servitude of Rome which had so long layne upon them and lock'd up their senses like a deepe sleepe How be it the light was not alike welcome to all some fully and wholly gave it entertainement others opened some Curtaines onely and so yeelded themselves to a little further slumber Henry the eighth here in England was well pleased with that Doctrine which discovered his owne independence and the weakenesse of the Popes Prerogative but those further monstrous deformed errors and superstitions of Rome which are founded upon its absolute Prerogative and are as inconsistent with light as the Prerogative it selfe He tooke no delight to looke upon So farre as his owne interest and worldly advantage was represented by the beames of the Gospell so farre his eyes thought it amiable And so farre Bishop Gardiner though a Bishop was ready to assist him but so farre as his spirituall interest and the generall advantage of his Subjects was concerned so farre Hee and Gardiner both could remaine as blind as Sir Thomas More T is wonderfull that so sharp-sighted a man as Sir Thomas More was should lay downe his life in justification of the Popes supremacie but t is more wonderfull that Gardiner should see the weakenesse of that supremacie and yet still adhere to diverse other Popish superstitions as absurdly resulting from the same principles The State of Venice also out of meere policy has long been at defiance with the Court of Rome so farre as meere rules of Government guide and direct it but in all other spirituall delusions and impostures it is as dead as heavie-eyed as ever Spaine France and Germany also though they speake not the same yet they now doe the same as Venice they all shut up and impale the Popes Authority within Peters Patrimony leaving him no command but within his owne Italian territories and yet besides his authority they cast off nothing else so much doe we generally esteeme Earth before Heaven and our temporall advantages before the subsistance of our soules But let reason of State bee what it will The Parliament here agrees to annex to the Crowne of Henry the eighth and his successors whatsoever sole independent power was before challenged in Ecclesiasticall and Spirituall things by the Pope or any Church-Man whatsoever And Hooker seemes both to confesse and justifie the same for sayes H Our Kings of England when they are to take possession of the Crown have it
from these Tenets but because many of them especially Clergimen do not wholly dissent from all the grounds of these Tenets therefore they also doe partake in some errours and absurdities of the like nature One Scotist says That Mountague and our learnedest Protestant Divines nay even Rainolds himselfe though otherwise a Puritan yet they all hold that there is due to the King no spirituall but only a temporall rule over persons and causes Ecclesiasticall and that also by accident for the common peace sake Hee sayes also that in his presence at a Cambridge Commencement the chiefe Bishop was called Maximus Pater and that it was maintained that the care of spirituall things did appertain to the chiefe Bishop and of temporall to the King and whereas it was at last concluded that all was to be governed by the King yet he sayes questionless the intent was civilitèr not spiritualitèr And if wee look back to the primitives we shal find that in good times before Popery had any considerable growth Kings for penance were enjoyned to kneele to Priests and were not admitted to have seats in the Chancell neere the Altar no not amongst the Deacons but were sometimes subjected to heavie and sharp censures of Bishops and sometimes strucke with the thunderbolt of Excommunication it self And we shall find that the Name Church was applyed in common speech to Churchmen only and the Name Spiritualitie was taken in the same sense as if all other persons had beene strangers to the Church and had beene of a meere Temporall and Secular condition and by the name Clergie it was intimated to the World that the Sacerdotall function was the only lot and patrimony of God and these usages were ab antiquo And wee shall finde that the holiest and learnedest Fathers of the Church did seeme to preferre the Mitre before the Diademe and to dream of a Spirituall Empire belonging to Priests more worthy and sacred then that of Emperours And therefore Gregory of Nazianzen in a Sermon before the Emperour says thus to him The Law of Christ hath committed you to my Charge and to my Pulpit for we rule also and ours is a more excellent and perfect regiment And comparing further the rule of Priests with the rule of Princes Hee cals the one spirituall the other fleshly and concludes that the spirit ought not to give place to the flesh nor heavenly things to earthly What hee meant here by giving place whether hee meant it of externall submission or internall awe I cannot tell but he left it uncertain To the same purpose that of Ambrose tends also Thinke not O Emperour that thou hast any right over divine things for the Palace is for the Emperour but Churches for Priests And that also of Athanasius It s neither lawfull for us to hold a Kingdome upon earth nor hast thou O Emperour power over sacred things Wee see they speake of their Ministery and Ecclesiasticall vocation as of a sovereigntie and rule and that more sacred then that of Princes of which Princes were not worthy or capable And to passe by the blinde times of Popery wherein upon these grounds the Roman Bishops inthralled a great part of Christendome with temporall bondage wee shall finde also that since the abjuration of Romish servitude yet Protestant Ministers themselves have assumed a sanctitie more then is due The Kings Supremacie or Headship over the Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall State Hee being accounted but meerly temporall in comparison of Priests is as ill wished by many Calvinists as by Papists their word is of Secular Princes Istis non competit iste Primatus And as Sir Thomas More suffered death in testimony of his dislike so Calvin himselfe condemnes this Realme of Blasphemy for entitling Henry the Eighth Supreme Head of the Church here under Christ And not only the Name but the power it selfe which wee give to Civill Magistrates he protesteth against as that which had wounded him deeply Princes being made thereby too spirituall hee complaineth that this fault did raigne throughout Germany and in some parts of France to the taking away of Spirituall Regiment whilst Princes were made chiefe Judges as well in matters of doctrine as discipline Hence it is that all which follow Calvin which is almost the generality of Protestants besides Papists hold Princes incompetent for spirituall Regencie accounting the intermedling of Princes therein as an abolition or prophanation of the same And hence it is that our contrary faction of Hierarchists also deny the Kings Supremacie in Spiritualibus though not in Ecclesiasticis and our Prelats Style is providentia divina not gratiâ Regis and as they issue Writs in their own Names so they use their owne armes in their Seales and not the Kings And wee know it was my Lord of Canterburies industry of late to procure a Commission about five yeeres since that all Bishops Courts might proceed without any subordination or dependency to any other of the Kings Courts So that though they complaine of the Presbyterian Discipline and the doctrine of Calvin as injurious to Princes yet they themselves seeme to be of the same confederacie But that I may not seem to misreport or misinterpret any I will cite only two Divines of prime note both defenders of Supremacie Hooker speaking of that dutifull subjection which is due from all Christians to the Pastors of their souls in respect of their sacred Order affirmes that the same is as due from Kings and Princes as from their meanest vassals Reverence due to the Word and Sacraments and to Gods Ordinances is not here meant for that is as due from Priests themselves also as from any other it is meant of reverence due to the persons of Priests this he cals subjection and challenges as due in respect of their sacred Order And so Bilson descanting upon the words of Nazianzen after a comparative manner as Hooker did inferres thereupon that Priests have a greater and perfecter regiment then Princes For sayes he Priests governe the souls of men and dispense the mysteries of God whereas Princes are set to rule the bodies of men and to dispose the things of this life c. Hee does not compare the offices but the Regiments of Priests and Princes and hee averres as confidently that Priests governe the souls and exercise dominion over the spirits of Christians as that Princes have no power at all but over the bodies and temporalities of their Subjects And for these causes the Crosier is generally preferred in Honour and Sanctitie before the Scepter to detect therefore the errour of Divines herein I will now truly produce and throughly poize those arguments which they most rely upon The first argument runs thus Spirituall things are not to be managed and treated but only by spirituall persons but Princes are not spirituall Ergo Wee must first understand here what is meant by spirituall things and spirituall persons If by spirituall things here such things are meant as appertain to
more vertuous than his Crosiers and when the Councell was by Constantine called and ordered the Bishop of Rome was not the onely Oracle in that Councell neither had that great trouble of assembling been if one Bishop had then bin more oraculous than all The same offices also which Constantine did in his dayes many other godly Emperors did in their raignes and had not they done them no one Bishop could for the Catholike Bishops were many times inferior in number and power to the Heretikes and if the Pope had then had the power to utter Oracles yet not having power to inforce and authorise the same upon all opposites hee could not have advantaged Religion amongst Heretikes more than hee doth now amongst Protestants Iewes Turkes or Pagans If God gave infallibility to one Bishop for the availe of all the world why doth not that Bishop availe the whole world Why is so great a light put under a Bushell Why are not all men illuminated by it And if God had no regard therein but to that remnant which worships the Pope if his only ayme therein was at the salvation of Papists why is this made a ground of universall authority to the Pope or of generall priviledge to all Bishops But I am to speake now to Protestants which hold no one Bishop infallible but the whole order of Bishops freer from fallibility than any other condition of men therfore to such I shall instance in Rome it selfe what multitudes of Divines of learned profound Divines of politike Sagacious Divines for many ages together have beene drunke and bewitched with the superstitions Idolatries blasphemies and heresies of that inchanting City Can it bee thought safe for Princes and Lay-men wholly to abjure their owne understandings and yeeld themselves Captives to the dictates of Divines only when so many Millions of them for so many ages notwithstanding all their exquisite learning and rare abilities devote themselves to such sottish impostures and grosse impieties nay to some such infernall diabolicall tenets Can men still persist to give up their judgements wholly to other men for their callings sake or for their learning and wisdome supposed when we see this is the very same rock whereupon Rome suffers Ship-wrack and this blind opinion the very snare wherein so great a part of the world still lies intangled But I will avoydeprolixity And now in the fourth place I come to shew that if we will take all these things for granted and ascribe all learning knowledge and freedome from variance to all Clergie-men and to Clergie-men only yet it doth not follow that they are necessarily to rule and command in chiefe Nay I shall make it appeare that it is not only not necessary but that it is many wayes mischievous that the ablest Divine should alwayes be supreme in all causes and over all persons Ecclesiasticall Power and wisdome are things of a different nature for power cannot stand with inferiority but wisdome may be as efficacious in a man of meane condition as in a man of high quality and power if its supremacy be divided it is diminished but wisdome the more it is dispersed the more the vertue of it is increased Wisedome often is contented to serve and to accept of a low dwelling but power ceases to be power if it dwell not in sublimity and have honour to attend it To be wise and to be contemned dejected suppressed are things compatible they are things frequent but to be potent is the same thing as to be great to be sacred to bee a commander of other mens wisdome Nay to be potent hath no terme convertible but to be potent Power in the State is preserved as the Arke was in the Iewish Church it is priviledged from common sight and touch in all well constituted Common wealths it is united in some one person only and to him so lineally intayled that it may never dye never cease never suffer any violent motion or alteration Power is as the soule of Policy of so exquisite and delicate sense that nothing but the wings of Cherubims is fit to guard and inclose it from all rude approaches vacuity in nature is not a thing more abhorred or shunned with greater disturbance and with greater confusion of properties than the least temeration and eclipse of power in the State How absurd then is this axiome which makes power servile to wisdome not wisdome to power wch subjects power to so many translations competitions and ceslations as often as time shall discover such and such excellencies in such and such men If power shall always be at the devotion of such men as for the present appear most wise if she shal be made so cheap and vulgar and prostituted daily to so many uncertainties what quiet can she procure to the world Nay what bloud wil she not procure I need say no more this axiome is neither consistent with Monarchicall nor hereditary rule For first if the most knowing Divine shall alwayes be supreme Commander in all Church affaires for more than this the Pope never claymed then by the same reason the most knowing States-man shall be supreme in the Palace the most knowing Souldier in the Campe the most knowing Lawyer in the Tribunall c. and so Monarchy shall be changed not into the aristocracy or democracy which are formes not utterly corrupt but into poly-coirany than which nothing can be more unpoliticke All Nations have ever rejected this broken confused rule of many severall independent Commanders which cannot chuse but injoyne impossible things sometimes for all these commanders may at the same time use the same mans service in severall places and in this they never can be satisfied wherefore we may well account this rule as bad as anarchy it selfe Nay even Religion it selfe by this meanes may be distracted into severall supremacies for He that is the ablest Divine in polemicall points and in deciding controversies may not be ablest in positive points or matters of Discipline and yet here the one hath as good title to absolute power in his sphere as the other hath in his And as Monarchy cannot so secondly neither can hereditary right stand with this alwayes uncertaine variable title of ability and excellence in knowledge Nay possession of supremacy is here no good plea For he that was the greatest and most knowing man last yeare is not so this yeare neither perhaps will he be next yeare that is so this yeare A thousand incongruities and inconveniences attend upon this paradox for the abilities of men are very hardly tryable and discernable and if they were not yet the subjecting of power to the perpetual giddy changes of new elections would soone confound us into our old Chaos againe as the Poets word is The three principall acts of power are First to make Lawes Secondly to give judgement according to Lawes made Thirdly to execute according to the right intent of judgments In the making of Lawes also according to Tully there is
descendents wheras now no such superiority can have place amongst our Clergie-men Fourthly The Priests and Levites had then offices of a different nature some of them were more easie as to superintend c. others more toylesome as to sacrifice c. some more holy as to offer incense c. others more meane as to slaughter beasts c. and so different orders were accordingly appointed but no such difference of service is amongst our Priests in our Churches I shall adde also fifthly that there were then many Ceremonies and Types and rites of worship about which many differences might arise hardly to be decided without some appointed Iudges whereas now the abolition of those externall rudiments and clogs hath discharged us of all such questions and scruples in the Church And sixthly the whole forme of Religious worship was then externally more majesticall and dreadfull and it was convenient that some correspondence should bee in pomp and splendor between the persons which did officiate and the places wherein they did officiate As there was a Sanctum more inaccessible than the outer Court and a propitiatory more reverend than either and as some Altars and Sacrifices were more solemne and venerable than others so it was fit that persons should bee qualified accordingly with extraordinary honor and priviledge but this reason now ceases amongst us There was no inherent holines in that Temple more than is in ours nor no more internall excellence in those Priests than in ours and yet we see an externall splendour was than thought fit for those times which our Saviour did not seeme to countenance in his Church The same glittering garments are not now usefull for our Priests nor the same sanctimonious forbearance and distance due to our Chancels and for ought we know all other grandour and lustre of riches power and honour falls under the same reason but in the next place our answer is that notwithstanding all these differences which may much more plead for power and preeminence amongst the Iewes than amongst us yet we do allow to our Clergy more power and preeminence than was knowne amongst the Iewes There is no colour in Scripture that there were so many Ecclesiasticall Courts in Iudea so thronged with sutors so pestred with Officers so choaked up with causes of all kinds as matrimoniall testimentary and many the like there is no colour that in so many severall divisions of the Land besides ordinary tithes and indowments they had any Ecclesiasticall Lords to injoy so many severall Castles Palaces Parkes Manors c. They had one Miter we have many They had one Priest richly attired but with Ornaments that were left for the use of successive generations we have many whose bravery is perpetually fresh and various Alexander might perhaps wonder at the sumptuous habit of one of Aarons Successors but if Salomon himselfe should see the Majesticall equipage of diverse of our Arch-Bishops or Cardinals as they passe from one tribunall to an other He would think his own Religion simple and naked to ours Besides though the Iewes had but one High-Priest in whom was concerned all the State and glory of their Clergie yet he also was so farre from clayming any independent power that in the most awfull of Religious affaires as consulting with God receiving the Law building and dedicating the Temple ordering and reforming Priests and their services making Lawes and superintending all holy persons places and things in all these things hee was inferior to the Prince not so much as executing the same by subordination That Scotch Gentleman therefore which undertakes to prove the independent unalterable jurisdiction of Bishops as it s now injoyd and accounted divine in England both from the Law and the Gospell is as much to be applauded for his confidence as for his wit One Argument more is brought by some Papists to the same purpose but it is scarce worth repetition They say Ieremy was but a meane Prophet yet it s written of him that he was appointed over Nations and Kingdomes to pull up to beate downe to despise c. and they inferre that what a Prophet might doe a fortiori a Priest may doe But this is not literally spoken as true of Ieremies own exployts The Prophet was here Gods instrument to foretell and proclaime them but God had other instruments to execute them and those instruments in probability were Princes not Prophets nor Priests Princes Prophets and Priests may all be instruments of God in the same service yet not all serve alike honourably for wee must looke further sometimes than into the meere names of things because some names of service import the nature of command and some names of command import the nature of service The word Nurse expresses something of service but more of power and this is fitly applyed sometimes to Princes for the office of Princes is to serve those who are subject to their power On the other side the word Guide expresses somthing of power but more of service and this may be fitly applyed to Priests and Prophets for their skill may make them serviceable in somethings to those which in others are served by them But I conclude these two first points that there is no priviledge either of Sanctity or Knowledge which can exalt Priests above Princes or intitle them to that spirituall regiment in the Church which they would faine pretend to Further at this time I have not leasure to proceed I must now leave this already spoken and all that which naturally will result from it to the Iudicious FINIS
men to refraine the outward act but reformeth not the secrets of the heart This is Bilson's sense and I thinke the sense of almost all our Divines by this is Nazianzen fully seconded and abetted for first the true and proper rule of priests is not only asserted but also explained for it gives grace and life by the Word and Sacraments it reproves and threatens it shuts the gate of Heaven against Non-repentants Secondly the rule of princes is lesned and that by this instance for that the preacher winneth soules to a willing service but the prince by externall terrour restraineth only from the outward act of sin And thirdly his comparison is indefinite betweene Prince and preacher that which is implyed of Priest in generall hee seemeth to apply to every priest in particular I must frame my answer to every particular Power and Dominion of it selfe is divine and adde but infinite or absolute to it it is Divinitie it selfe Nothing is more desirable to man or more adequate to the aymes of intelligent creatures then power the Angels in Heaven are known to us by the Names of Thrones and Principalities Heaven it self is knowne to us by the name of a Kingdome and our best devotion to God consists in ascribing to him honour worship subjection c. and the first and greatest sin of men and Angels was an aspiring to undue Power and excellence Absolute perfection and blessednesse is the Unitie of the Godhead and that Unitie must needs subsist in absolute power absolute wisdome and absolute goodnesse Absolute power also in order of Nature according to mans understanding as a Father gives being to absolute wisdome as both give being to absolute Goodnesse Whatsoever is in God must needs be God and of the same substance indivisible and so infinite wisdome and infinite Goodnesse must needs be coeternall and consubstantiall with infinite power yet this excludes not all order of distinction and according to order of distinction it is more proportionable to our capacitie that infinite Wisdome should derive its divine generation from infinite power then infinite power from infinite Wisdome Unitie of perfect blessednesse cannot comprehend any thing more then this Trinity neither can it comprehend any thing lesse and therfore though this word Trinity cannot have any relation to the essence of God or to his works ad extra which flow from the essence yet to his persons it may and to his internall operations wherein one person is more generative then another And according to these internal operations of the Deitie we ought to speak after the manner of men to ascribe prioritie of Order to infinite power the first person of the Godhead in as much as wee cannot conceive but that God is rather wise as he is powerfull and Good as hee is both powerfull and wise then that hee is powerfull as hee is wise or wise and powerfull as he is good Having premised these things in generall concerning power and dominion and the excellence thereof I am come now to see what that power and Dominion is which Churchmen clayme to themselves Our Hierarchists use the words Power and regiment to describe all their actions and employments the Power of Order the Power of Jurisdiction the Power of the Word and Sacraments and the Power of the Keys all their spirituall Offices and Faculties are expressed in commanding and high terms that they may seem to owe no subordination or dependence to any above themselves And this art they further use when they would prove the excellence of their spirituall rule they derive it from preaching and the subordinate Offices of the Ministery but when they would exercise their rule then they alleage that to rule over Preachers is more greater then to preach because the spirits of men are properly subject to no rule and because preaching though it be one of Gods most effectuall Ordinances yet is no proper rule but a service rather therefore they lay hold of Ecclesiasticall juridiction for proofe of their holy spirituall rule And yet because Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is of it selfe no such divine sublime thing as the ministration of the Word and Sacraments nor so incompetent for Princes as to the use of it therefore their proofs are chiefly grounded upon the ordinances of the Word and Sacraments but this slight imposture cannot so delude us for either Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction is more sacred and spirituall then the ministration of the Word and Sacraments or not if it be then these arguments drawne from the Word and Sacraments are impertinent The question is whether Princes be capable of such jurisdiction or not and this proves not the incapacity of Princes this only proves the honour of such capacitie but on the other side if it be not yet there is the same impertinence for if priests challenge to themselves power in things more excellent and holy this excludes not Princes from things lesse excellent and holy but wee shall not need to stick here The papists themselves doe acknowledge that to preach c. is lesse then to rule and to prescribe Laws to preachers c. and Bilson makes a plaine confession that the Sacerdotall Office is rather Ministeriall then Imperiall and that such reverence and subjection as is due in spirituall affaires from Princes is not due to the persons of priests but to the Ordinances of God and to the graces of the Church For says hee the word is to be submitted to in the mouths of Prophets and the Ordinances are to be honoured in the administration of Priests but the persons of Prophets and Priests must not be objects to terminate this submission and honour God is to be honoured in the service of his Ministers not the Ministers in Gods stead for in these services there is the same honour due to GOD from Ministers themselves as from Lay-men And therefore wee see if the greater Priest heare the word c. from the lesse this does not sanctifie the lesse above the greater as it would if sanctitie did rest in the person and not in the Ordinance or if it did not passe from the actor or instrument to the Author and Ordainer himselfe I thinke wee may therefore proceed now from this that power and Government is a thing in it selfe most awfull and honourable to this that the truest owners thereof next under God whom the Church ever look't upon as Gods immediate Vicegerents and Deputies thereof are Princes Saint Peter 1. 2. writing to the Church in the time of a Heathen and impious Emperour commands every soul to be subject to the higher powers He acknowledges power in a very Nero and that to be the higher power and to that higher power of that Nero he subjects every soule Christian and Heathen Priest and Laymen For the same cause also the primitives in Tertullians mouth make this humble profession Colimus imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem this profession was made under the
Reign of wicked Emperours to whom in Ecclesiasticall affaires more might be denied then to ours for though Reges in quantum Reges serviunt Deo as Saint Augustine sayes yet in quantum pii Reges they serve God the more gloriously and have a neerer accesse to God and in that respect it may bee more truly said of them that they are à Deo secundi solo Deo minores and if so how awfull and venerable must this render their persons and with what submission must we prostrate our selves at their sacred feet and that it may not seeme strange that meer power and rule in an unbelieving or wicked Prince should be so sacred and inviolable wee must take notice that the wickednesse of Princes in ill commands though it discharge us as to those ill commands yet it does not discharge their power or rule either in those or in any other For when Princes rule well they are to be obeyed when ill they are to be endured and this very indurance is an effect of obedience and subjection Peter as a Citizen of the Common-wealth is a servant to Nero and though in the meere consideration of a Christian Hee has not dependance upon Nero further then is to be testified by suffering under him in ill commands yet in all civill things and things indifferent his dependance remayns undissolved If Nero forbid Peter to preach contradicting God herein whose power is still transcendent this prohibition binds not Peter but if Nero use the Sword hereupon against Peter this sword is irresistible because though in this it be injurious in other things it is still sacred This one violence of Nero is tyrannous but the authority whereby this is done is not tyranny For the same sword which offends one defends many still and if one here be defended many must be offended and the good of many is to be preferred before the good of one And yet if God had made Peter supreame Judge of such cases and had given him a power independent it had been necessary that he had given him withall some remedie and sufficient means to support the same Supremacy independent right for God gives no man an absolute right without some proper remedy appertaining to the same The use of power is not to intreat or perswade only for these may bee done without power but to command and commands are vaine without compulsion and they which may not compell may not command and they which cannot command may not meddle at all except to intreat or perswade Power then there must be and that power must be somewhere supreame that it may command all good and punish all evill or else it is insufficient and if all then in religious as well as in civill cases for Supremacie may be severally exercised but the right of it cannot be severally enjoyed if Peter may doe more then perswade Nero the Scepter is Peters not Neroes if hee may doe no more he is as meer a subject as any other Layman but in whethersoever the power of commanding rests it cannot rest in both the Scepter cannot be shared independence cannot be divided the people cannot obey both as equall Judges whilst their judgments remain contrary nor serve both as equal Lords whilst their commands are contrary To perswade and intreat in Ministers are the offices of a blessed vocation but they are not properly Ensigns of Royaltie and power and if the spirits of men are somtimes moved won by the perswasions of Ministers as they may by other means yet captivated and commanded they cannot be and therefore if this be called power it is but imaginary and improper and such as ought not to enter into any comparison or rivalitie with that solid sensible coercive binding power wherewith God has invested his true Lievtenants upon earth That power which is proper must include not only a right of commanding but also an effectuall vertue of forcing obedience to its commands and of subjecting and reducing such as shall not render themselves obedient The supreame civill Magistrate has this power grounded upon the common consent of Mankinde and as strong as is the politicall consent of humane nature in its supream Law of publike conservation so vigorous and invincible is this power Had Priests any such power or sword we should soon see it and feele it and voluntarily stoop under it but since they can pretend to none such the meere noyse of an imaginary spirituall power and sword must not deceive us The sword must be of sympathy and proportion answerable to those commands for which it was ordained if the commands be externall and politicall the sword must not be invisible and meerly spirituall If the Pope can impose an oath upō us to stand to his laws and to obey his awards our obedience being here politicall his power of imposing Oaths must be the like for if he pretend a right and have no remedy that is no power if he have a remedy that is not of the same nature with his command it will prove no remedy it will be found vain and uneffectuall Wee cannot thinke that God has given the Pope any power but for good and wee cannot think that power good whereby the Pope may destroy Millions of souls and yet cannot reclayme or convince one The Popes commands seeme to mee unreasonable unnaturall impious the Pope herein ha's no spirituall power to rectifie mee or to discover my errour to me or to procure obedience from me that power which he ha's over my soule is only to exclude it from heaven and to give it as a prey to Satan for not attributing more to him then to my own conscience and naturall light Can wee think that God gave this new Power never before knowne to these latter days out of mercy that all except one handfull of men should perish by it and none at all receive benefit by it It cannot be said that the same keys which shut heaven to so many open heaven to any one for those few which obey the Pope obey him either voluntarily or by constraint and they which are constrained obey him as a Prince not as a Priest and bow under his temporall not spirituall yoke howsoever it be otherwise pretended Voluntary obedience also is such as is rendred without any externall influence from the Pope For the will is capable of no compulsion and if it were my will would be as lyable to the same as any other mans and if the Pope may compell my will and so open Heaven to me as it were by his spirituall keys and will not t is his crueltie not my contumacie It s no glory to the Pope that some few by blinde voluntary obedience acknowledge the power of his keyes in this hee has no advantage of Mahomet that sword which was so victorious in the hand of Mahomet was as spirituall and as universally prevalent as the Popes So much of the imaginary rule and spiritual sword of